Rooney becomes surprise outsider for tough EFL job as new favourites emerge

Cambridge announced on Sunday that Garry Monk has left as head coach after less than a year at the League One club.

The U's have just won just five league matches this season and are rock-bottom of the third tier, eight points adrift of safety.

With relegation to League Two looming, Cambridge will be eyeing an appointment they hope could keep their chances of survival alive.

Sitting top of the Cambridge candidate list as the outright favourite at 2/1 is their former head coach Mark Bonner.

Bonner had previously been in assistant and caretaker manager roles at the club before taking the permanent job in March 2020.

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He guided them from League Two to League One during his first full season but was sacked in September 2023 after a poor run of form.

The 39-year-old then had an eight-month spell at Gillingham and is now without a club.

Bonner's permanent successor at Cambridge was Neil Harris but he spent just over two months there before leaving in February 2024.

He returned to former club Millwall before leaving again in December, and is now sitting at 8/1 for the U's vacancy.

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Rob Edwards, formerly of Cambridge's rivals Luton Town, has odds of 16/1 alongside Leighton Baines and Gary O'Neil.

Steve Cooper and Russell Martin are unlikely appointments at 20/1, as well as former England interim boss Lee Carsley.

One candidate could also be the England and Manchester United legend Rooney as he eyes a return to the touchline.

The 39-year-old has odds of 25/1 to become Monk's successor in the hotseat at Cambridge according to talkSPORT BET.

Rooney is available following his departure from Plymouth Argyle at the end of 2024 after a nine-match winless run.

He also had a difficult spell at Birmingham City but remains keen on taking up another role in coaching.

"I would like to go back in [to management]," he said in January on Stick to Football. "I would do, but it would have to be the right club."

However, he then insisted: "I'm not in a massive rush to go back in.

"And there's different things which I'm looking at, to try and get involved in with as well.

"So, unless something was absolutely the right thing to do, then [no]."

Among the other names also at 25/1 to are some of Rooney's former England teammates including John Terry and Steven Gerrard.

Terry is an academy coach at Chelsea whilst Gerrard was recently in the Saudi Pro League with Al Ettifaq.